How to verify a designer's portfolio
A design portfolio is easy to polish and hard to prove. Anyone can export a clean case study. What you want to know is whether this person made it, and how much of it was theirs.
Ask for the working file, not the screenshot
A finished image shows the result. The source file shows the work: layers, components, versions and the decisions between them. Ask the designer to walk you through the file and explain why a part is the way it is.
Someone who made it can answer in detail. Someone who copied it will stay at the surface.
Check the role, not just the project
Team projects are normal, so the question is what this person did. A portfolio that says 'led the redesign' should be able to say what was shipped, who it was for, and who else was involved. Contact someone from that team if you can.
Look for work that appears somewhere else
A reverse image search on the headline visuals tells you quickly whether they appear under another name. Stock-looking mockups and concept shots are the most common place for borrowed work.
What Nexr checks
On Nexr, design projects are checked from the uploaded source and output: file structure and metadata are read, colour palettes are extracted, and a visual signature is compared against other work on Nexr so the same piece is not claimed by two people.
Roles in a person's experience are confirmed by someone at that company, by email.
Questions
Can a design portfolio be fully verified?
Not completely by looking at it. The strongest checks are the working file, the confirmed role, and a second source such as a teammate or a live product.
What does Nexr check on a design project?
Nexr reads the source and output files, extracts structure and colours, and compares a visual signature against other work on the platform to catch duplicates. Roles are confirmed by a person at the company.
Nexr is the pre-verified portfolio platform for digital creatives. See how verification works.